SedatedDreams

Self-declared The New Prophecy Expert Links! Fanfictions. Youtube.

[mothdapple]

Hello! You can call me SedatedDreams, or just Sedated, Dreams, or Mothdapple, my govt assigned name works too! (30s, she/her)

I'm a scientist by day and a warrior cats fanfic author by night. I'll be using this blog mostly to share my writings and any thoughts that come along with that, as well as general Warriors-related musing. You can find the links and summaries of my Warriors fanfics below!

Cold Bloodlines

COMPLETE TRILOGY!

This is a "soft reboot" of Warriors, featuring a new cast of characters and conflict, a new time period (taking place in the past, after DotC but before SkyClan left the forest) and some additional worldbuilding around Clan cultures/traditions.

It follows Frost, a young rogue kit who is left alone in ShadowClan after being rejected by her father and orphaned after the death of her mother, as she tries to prove herself and find the place where she belongs.

Shaken Roots (A Rewrite of The New Prophecy)

My main focus, in progress: The first, second, and third books, "Shaken Roots: Midnight," “Shaken Roots: Moonrise,” and "Shaken Roots: Dawn" are complete!

"Shaken Roots: Starlight" is currently being released with chapter updates posted every-other-week!

It's basically what it says on the tin: The New Prophecy but I do my best to improve on the weaknesses of the arc to create a stronger, more cohesive narrative while not entirely destroying the Erins' original vision.

Lightning's Storm

Low priority, complete(ish.) This is a rewrite my first fic, originally published on Fanfiction.net from 2014-2017. The rewrite is only 75% finished, but the final 25% of the original remains on FF if you dare read my ancient writing.

This diverges from canon following "SkyClan's Destiny." Written in the style of the old super editions, it follows Leafstar's daughter, Lightningkit, from kithood to becoming a warrior in modern day SkyClan. The Clan is thriving until a new danger appears, and the young warrior finds herself in the middle of the conflict and the focus of an ominous prophecy.

This fic explores themes of destiny vs free will and asks the question of how much power a cat truly holds over their fate.

Warriors Characters' Spotlights

This is a collection of oneshots and novellas that are each focused on a particular canon warrior cat with the intent to show "missing scenes," or fill out gaps in the canon timeline. I write these sporadically, whenever I feel inspired to.

Fics in the series: "Leopardstar's Regret," exploring Leopardstar's emotions in the time after TigerClan. (The least canon-compliant of the bunch.)

"Ashfur's Judgment," exploring Ashfur's StarClan trial and how he weaseled his way in.

"Hawkfrost's Plot," exploring how Hawkfrost and Ashfur planned to kill Firestar together. Plus a little bit of toxic yaoi as a treat.

"Thrushpelt's Love," exploring Thrushpelt's relationship with Bluefur and their kits.

"Fernsong's Grief," exploring Fernsong's emotions after Bristlefrost's death.

"The Herb Thieves," which is my short story entry to the official 2021 Warriors competition about Brightpaw investigating some missing herbs. I didn't win, but I'm honored to have been mentioned among the top 10.

"Ashfur's Purgatory," exploring Ashfur's time in StarClan between his death and The Broken Code (and acts as a follow-up to Ashfur's Judgment.) He's only become more delusional.

“Squirrelflight’s Lives,” a fic about the nine lives ceremony that I’d like Squirrelflight to have!

"Mudfur's Lie," my submission for the official 2024 Warriors short-story competition, about Mudfur raising Leopardstar.

"Ridgeglow's Fondness," a cute little fic about Ridgeglow and Birchfeather falling in love.

"Hollyleaf's Penitence," explores Hollyleaf struggling with her guilt about her actions/life after she dies and ends up in StarClan. (A companion piece to Ashfur's Purgatory.)

"Squirrelstar's Solitude," takes place during "Hidden Moon," as Squirrelstar grapples with the thought of her life without Brambleclaw in it.

and finally...

Silverhawk’s Legacy

This used to be in the above series, since I originally wanted it to be a novella, but it had it's own plans.

This is an in-progress novel about Silverhawk’s life, his relationship with his mate Emberdawn, and his actions that eventually land him in the Dark Forest. It is set in the Clan’s distant past, right after the tradition of leaders being succeeded by their kin is replaced with the amended warrior code, which states that deputies always take over after their leader’s death. It's a little bit of an enemies-to-lovers romance with a big helping of political intrigue and murder on the side.

That is all, at least for now. Thank you so much for checking out my blog and for reading this far :)

My Ko-fi, if you are feeling generous <3

[mothdapple]

Oh I didn't know you liked StormBramble too! It's funny that you love Stormfur being shipped with both Tigerstar sons.

I can see StormHawk being tragic in canon because I can interpret Hawkfrost kicking Stormfur and Brook out of RiverClan as romantic jealousy, but I can't quite see a similar angst angle for StormBramble because Stormfur is so tied to being with Brook and also having had feelings for Squirrelflight, even if Brambleclaw is defending him staying in ThunderClan. So how would you make StormBramble endgame/angsty/have weight in a canon-compliant AU, is what I mean?

Well to be clear, I'd probably want StormBramble and StormHawk to happen in separate AUs lol (so Stormfur wouldn't be shipped with both of Tigerstar's sons at the same time.)

As for your question: my understanding of "canon compliant" is that it means a headcanon or idea that's not explicitly contradictory to canon. So I feel like by that definition, any version of StormBramble endgame already cannot be canon compliant, since Stormfur and Brambleclaw don't actually get together in the books. (Although you could make the case for something like the headcanon of Stormfur having a crush on Brambleclaw in Moonrise as being "canon compliant.")

Anyway, though, I can still try to think about an AU that at least sticks as closely as possible to canon. So I'd probably have the divergence happen around Dawn. Stormfur can still have his crush on Squirrelpaw and Brook (and Brambleclaw, like I mentioned in the previous ask response on BrambleStorm lol) in Moonrise. But once Dawn starts after Feathertail's death, Stormfur would no longer be interested in Brook romantically. He'd probably be grieving too much to think much about romance at all, at this point. But Brambleclaw would be a big comfort to him at the time (as his friend), and they could grow even closer as the Great Journey happens. Stormfur would start to feel distant from his RiverClan Clanmates, but again though, Stormfur would not choose to stay with the Tribe in this version. Instead, Brambleclaw could bring up that he's sure that Firestar's offer for Stormfur to join ThunderClan still stands, and Stormfur would accept, joining ThunderClan when they reach the lake.

Brambleclaw and Stormfur could then eventually begin a romantic relationship maybe towards the end of Starlight or in Twilight. (I imagine with Squirrelflight being the catalyst that finally pushes them together lol, after getting fed up of the two of them always circling each other. Like: "Ugh! It's so obvious that you two like each other! Just go talk about it already!!!!") You could sprinkle in some angst surrounding Brambleclaw still training with Tigerstar in his Dark Forest dreams, while feeling really guilty because his mate was a cat who Tigerstar attempted to execute when he was only an apprentice.

[mothdapple]

OMG Blackstar X Stonefur XD god that is BookTok levels of toxic romance, but my word it would lead to some interesting AUs <3

Lol both toxic and doomed!

I don't have a super clear conception for how I'd see it playing out, but I'd imagine it's go something like: They have this rivalry as deputies of enemy Clans, but underlining the hostility there's a current of respect for the strength of the other warrior. Then when RiverClan and ShadowClan start to merge into TigerClan, Stonefur and Blackfoot would be forced to work more together, coordinating things like the day-to-day logistics of the merging Clans. (This would be before Tigerstar takes Stonefur, Mistyfoot, Featherpaw, and Stormpaw prisoners.) They'd keep up their bravado and banter, but as they started to get to know each other, they'd (probably grudgingly from both sides) start to genuinely like the other. There'd probably be a bit of back-and-forth of them denying that they like the other, while it's increasingly clear that their feelings are growing.

But then Tigerstar declares the half-Clan cats as traitors and imprisons Stonefur, and Blackfoot can't go against Tigerstar. And... well, we know how it ends.

[mothdapple]

I am in shambles why is jayfeather x kestrelflight so low on your teirlist 😭😭 /j

Lol I have nothing major against JayKestrel! It just doesn't really "speak" to me. I think part of it is that I'm very picky about Jayfeather ships in general. I think a lot of it is me seeing him on the aroace spectrum and also always feeling strongly opposed to Half Moon x Jay. So Jayfeather has got to have a very special connection to another character for me to see them together romantically. (I think the only Jayfeather ship that I actually have strong positive feelings towards is JayPoppy.)

The connection between Jay and Kestrel (or at least my perception of it) just isn't strong enough for me to see it romantically. It sort of feels like the ship is mostly just based on: "what if we were both boys and both medicine cats, and we kissed 👉👈" which, you know, would be a perfectly fine basis for a ship for another set of characters. But again because it's Jayfeather, who I have irrationally strong feelings on ships about for whatever reason lol, it just doesn't work for me in this case 😔

But I do kinda wish I liked JayKestrel more though, since I do feel like it has the potential to be very funny. Like I'm thinking in particular of that scene when Jayfeather uses his power to walk in Kestrelflight's dreams to find out where the catmint in WindClan is. And Kestrelflight is like: "Hi Jayfeather! :)" and Jayfeather is like: "Um. Hi. Can you show me where your important medicine is. For completely normal. And unsuspicious reasons." And Kestrelflight's like: "Yeah, of course! :)" Like imagine this trend persisting of Jayfeather continuing to trick his dumb (/affectionate) boyfriend into doing things for him lmao

[mothdapple]

I didn’t know you were a fellow LongFire enjoyer!!

Yes!!! LongFire is such a good ship! It's probably my favorite Firestar ship (well, tied with FireSand. Call me basic, but I do also love them together lol.)

I like LongFire for the enemies-to-lovers aspect of it (which is a trope that I really enjoy when executed well.) I just love the arc of Longtail and Firestar going from hating each others guts, to grudgingly realizing that there are admirable aspects about the other, to then unabashed, unwaveringly loyalty.... Which I suppose is basically what happens in canon, just without the additional romantic aspect lol.

I wish more had been done with Longtail post-arc one in canon, in general. He didn't deserve to get side-lined so hard after having such great character development

[mothdapple]

Very happy to see fellow StormBramble enjoyers out in the wild! I feel like the ship is a little starved for content recently but maybe that’s just from my perspective. What do you like about it, or what made you start shipping it in the beginning?

Yes, I think they're so cute! I think one of my many rereads of TNP Moonrise years ago is what got me interested in the ship initially. Just the way Stormfur thinks about Brambleclaw in that book gives off strong "confused bisexual" vibes to me lol. Like, even in the context of Stormfur's crush on Squirrelpaw: Stormfur feels like he can't compare against Brambleclaw as a potential love interest, and his thoughts on why that is (besides Brambleclaw being from ThunderClan) are basically: "Brambleclaw is so strong and loyal and brave and handsome..."

I think the ship also has a bit more potential depth to dig into too, given it's a pairing between Tigerstar's son and one of the cats Tigerstar/Clan attempted to execute. I do just like StormBramble as two big, beefy bros who then fall in love, but then the TigerClan angle adds just a little sprinkle of possible angst/conflict that bumps the ship up from just "good" to "great" for me. Like, Brambleclaw feeling guilty/insecure about Tigerstar's actions and how he looks like Tigerstar, Stormfur reassuring Brambleclaw that he sees him as his own cat (who he loves) and not a shadow of his father. It's 👌

[mothdapple]

Why don't you like Brambleclaw x Crowfeather? It seems fine to me - they seem to get along well enough from being bonded from being chosen on the Sundrown place. Sorry if this seems rude, I was just curious.

No need to apologize! I said I was open to questions about my ship rankings, so I'm happy to elaborate.

You're right that I think Brambleclaw and Crowfeather are fine as friends. But as for Brambleclaw x Crowfeather as a romantic ship, the way I've most often seen that ship presented is from people who dislike both characters, pitching the ship as something like: "why don't we just put the two horrible men together?"

I don't care if someone doesn't like Crowfeather or Brambleclaw, but pairing two characters just because you dislike them both isn't a particularly interesting reason for a ship for me personally. Even if we were all in agreement about Brambleclaw and Crowfeather being awful men, I don't think their dynamic as a couple would be compelling to me.

Like, I have nothing against ships with potentially toxic dynamics as you can see from my list lol. But I like those sorts of dynamics because there is something complex and interesting there to dig my teeth into. While this version of BrambleCrow just sounds like two dudes being miserable/making each other miserable (together.) It's just not fun to me!

I think if I was presented Brambleclaw x Crowfeather as a ship in isolation with no other knowledge about how other people in the fandom interpret it, I'd probably just rank it as neutral (so it would have not made the list.)

[mothdapple]

Helloo!! happy pride month! (I know I'm late, haha)

Since it's pride month, and I can't ask about their sexualities because that ask was already answered before, have you ever thought about ranking ships in a tier list? like your character tier list, but with romantic queer ships! of course you don't have to if you don't want to accidentally offend someone by ranking their ship low or something like that! :D

Hello!! And it's only the second day of pride month, that's not late!

Oh this is a fun ask! I ended up using this ship tier list, but I disregarded any of the straight ships on the list to rank only the queer ones! I added in Stormfur x Hawkfrost and Hollyleaf x Honeyfern specifically, but besides that didn't change the list. I also didn't want my rankings to get so massive it would be incomprehensible, so I only ranked queer ships that I have feelings (negative or positive) towards. If I was neutral on a ship or didn't know the characters of the ship well enough, I didn't include it.

The categories are basically: 1) My favorites, strong positive feelings about the ship! 2) Ships I like (lots of positive feelings) but aren't insane about. 3) At least somewhat toxic ships that have the potential to be very compelling. 4) I see the appeal, and I'm mildly positive about them. But I'm not necessarily purposefully seeking content of these ships out. 5) I can see the appeal in some cases, but I'm personally not really interested. 6) Not a fan and probably would not read content that featured these ships predominantly.

I'm happy to explain more about my feelings on particular ships if anyone is curious about any!

[bowiestarzzz]

lesbian ace mothwing? :)

[mothdapple]

Hello! I just wanted to come in to say how much I have LOVED your rewrite the last couple years, I recommend it to all my friends still in the fandom and it truly led me to having a new appreciation of the canon characters. The pacing, writing and characterization brings so much new to chew on while still feeling familiar and recognizable compared to the original story. SR has replaced the original version in my brain as canon, and I would recommend it to any WC fan in the nearest vicinity, tysm for sharing with the rest of us!!

Hi! Aw thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad you've been enjoying Shaken Roots, and thank you for following along for so long!!! :) ❤️

[mothdapple]

hey I would like to thank you for inspiring me to write my own warrior cats fanfiction. It is called the good shadow clan series and it is set in the prophecy begins era. It is an Au where yellowfang stayed a warrior and raised Brokenstar to be a good cat. Right now I'm working on the third book shadows within and updating the guidebook with characters information. But your stories is amazing and I love reading them. My favorite is cold bloodlines. And waiting for new prophecy to be done so I can read it all in one go

Aw thank you so much! I'm really glad that I could inspire you to work on your own fanfic series! :)

[mothdapple]

SR Moorise - Chapter 17 be like:

I'm so incredibly sorry about this.......

truly incredible, thank you hahaha

[just-another-cat-blog]

pride month!!!

[lemonsharks]

Is that a miette?

[jeanjauthor]

Pride for you!  Pride for a thousand years!!

[lost-and-cursed]

you COME OUT to miette? you come out to her as queer? oh! oh! pride for mother! pride for mother for One Thousand Years!!!!

[mothdapple]

the way that you manage to use the Erins' writing style and also improve upon it is really amazing as it really is so so accurate and faithful to the original books. Do you have any tips or insight into it?

Thank you! I’m not sure if this is something I can explain well though because I don’t intentionally attempt to mimic the Erins’ writing style beyond incorporating the usual Warriors series prose. By this I mean, both the in-world Warrior cats’ vocabulary like “thunderpath” or “leafbare.” But also, the Warriors writers have certain words and phrases they like to use often, like: the cats are always “padding” and “mrrowing with laughter” with “their eyes glittering with [emotion],” while “long shadows” stretch through the forest around them. Beyond that though, I don’t think my other word choices, or sentence structures, or even level of detail (I think I tend to be more descriptive/wordy than the canon books) is purposefully structured after the Erins’. 

So I guess the only tip I can really offer for mimicking the Warriors style would be to just keep an eye out for those frequently used words/phrases when reading the Warriors books and incorporate them into your fanfic writing. 

In general, though, I’d say if you want to change your writing style in any way, I’d recommend reading a lot while also being cognizant of what other writers are doing as you’re reading. If you like their writing style, figure out what it is specifically about it that you like and try to mold your writing to reflect those things. It’s also helpful to identify what things you might not like (so you know what to avoid doing,) or things that are neutral or don’t make a strong impression on you.

[nghtspckl]

Super good tips (and obviously they serve you well because your writing is so good!)

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about/noting the style quirks of the canon prose of Warriors, so I hope you don't mind me adding some tips for how to emulate canon style :')

(Also this is based off my own observations; writing is subjective! This is by no means a concrete style guide, and you can do really interesting things by choosing to pull away from the “canon” style and just doing what feels right for the story. )

But here are some things I’ve observed while reading the books!

1. Animalistic dialogue tags and verbs

A dialogue tag is the little phrase used to give context to who is speaking: the most common one is “said” (ex. “No thanks,” she said.) but of course there are hundreds.

Warriors is interesting because the prose tends to prefer more animalistic words/phrases over expressly human ones. “Mrow with laughter” is an infamous phrase they use, and then of course you have the typical cat ones like purr, hiss, meow/mew, etc.

The writing tends to avoid loud "human" verbs such as giggle, scream, shout, yell, instead using more animal-associated words like screech, yowl, wail, or howl.

However, they will use soft words like murmur, whisper, mumble, or mutter. It’s an interesting line to walk! And new releases, written by different ghost writers, also bring in changes to the style—I think "chuckle" was used in a recent SE.

In terms of the word “said” itself, it is actually used pretty rarely in Warriors, considering how ubiquitous it is everywhere else. For example, it is only used about 60 times in Midnight, while “meowed” is used over 200 times!

2. Emphasis on body language

A lot of the times, instead of using a speech verb for the dialogue tag, the writing in Warriors uses a small action phrase instead.

For example, from Midnight:

"And it's a good thing that I did." Squirrelpaw stood up and met Tawnypelt's gaze, her ears flat against her head. "You creep out at night and come up here to meet a ShadowClan warrior! What's Firestar going to think about that when I tell him?"

But, as before, the prose tends towards more animalistic behavior. Cats in real life don’t use their facial muscles to show mood the way humans or even dogs do, so they aren’t able to make the same expressions we are. Warriors prose loosely follows this idea.

Just like the cats don’t “giggle”, they also don’t smile, frown, scowl, or pout. They pretty much never cry: their eyes might glisten or they might make a sobbing noise, but it’s not a full snotty human cry.

Instead, emphasis is placed on body language to denote mood. Is the cat’s tail puffed out or smooth? Is it swishing with stress/agitation or curled around their paws? Are they grooming themselves to show they’re relaxed, or arching their backs in a defensive posture? What about their ears, whiskers, paws, eyes?

Using a cat behavior chart (like this one) or even just observing the behavior of a cat near you can make your writing of the cats more realistic, and closer to the canon prose.

3. Use of in-universe terms

Finally, as @mothdapple said, using in-universe vocabulary can make your fic more immersive and similar to the canon prose. Using canon terms like "monster", "Twolegs", "kittypet", etc will immediately make a story feel like a Warriors story.

Since they live in the woods, the cats use the natural phenomena/Clan life around them as a point of reference for pretty much everything. So any man-made objects are described in relation to that, like a house being called a "Twoleg nest". But there are some borrowed terms too, like the barn that Ravenpaw lives in is just called "the barn".

How far you want to go with this is up to you: for example, comparing something to glass is a pretty common use of figurative language, like something can have a "glassy" sheen or be "as clear as glass". But, in Warriors, the Clan cats don't know what glass is! They call it "clearstone". But I don't think using the word "glassy" in a Warriors fic is a bad idea, it's really just personal preference on how far you want to go with immersion :)

[mothdapple]

I find it funny that you're not attached to Stormfur and Shrewpaw but you made me love them more 😂 that's the mark of a good writer, to make everyone like the cast more despite personal preferences, and encourage other people's own interpretations.

Speaking of, I have a question about the neurodivergencies since that other person asked. Are you comfortable with getting other people's headcanons on SR's cast being neurodivergent? You as the writer said you don't want to portray anything harmful, but me as the reader doesn't want to tell you how to write and overstep your interpretation. Are you fine with people's headcanons and lived experiences of "this is what makes someone with this disorder/condition tick" or youd prefer not?

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that I'm not attached to to Stormfur! When I said I had trouble with his POV, that was because I was worried that people would find my portrayal of him boring— not because I, personally, think he's boring. If I'm ranking the TNP gang by my favorites, it's true that Stormfur falls more towards the bottom for me. (And I stand by what I said about his personality not being as big or distinctive as the others in the TNP gang lol.) But Stormfur is still one of my favorite little guys of all time when comparing him to all the other warrior cats.

Shrewpaw though... yeah, I don't care for Shrewpaw lol. (Nothing against him, really. I just don't have any strong feelings, negative or positive, towards his character.)

As for your question on the characters' neurodivergence and/or other mental differences/disorders: Sure, I'm happy to hear other people's headcanons about the SR cast, especially if someone sees something in a character that they relate to on a personal level! I just don't feel comfortable as the writer "confirming" said diagnosis, if I didn't set out intentionally to write a portrayal of that thing.

To explain more on why, I'm going to use Hawkfrost for an example. If someone with borderline personality disorder told me that they see Hawkfrost as also having bpd, I would see where they were coming from given how I've portrayed Hawkfrost and how some of his actions line up with the symptoms of bpd. And I'd be happy that that person saw something in Hawkfrost to relate to!

However, I'm not going to then say: "yeah, Hawkfrost has bpd" because it doesn't feel authentic or right for me to confirm something like that retroactively— especially because I didn't write Hawkfrost with that diagnosis in mind. Since I didn't have that intentionally when writing him, I wouldn't have throughly educated myself on the lived experience of someone with bpd (as I do not have it myself.) Therefore, I could have accidentally written in some sort of harmful stereotype since I didn't necessarily have bpd in mind/didn't know enough about the disorder when writing him. I hope that makes sense!

[mothdapple]

with Mothpool rev-ing up a bit I’m pretty convinced it’s going to be Mothpool running away to be together next book, especially since it’s a Leafpool POV book and then Hawkfrost after (so we would see the aftermath of Mothwing leaving and coming back to RiverClan which would probably be rife with delightful tension lol) I just feel it makes no sense for SquirrelCrow to leave the clans when yes - relationships with cats from other clans is forbidden - however it doesn’t have that level of completely taboo as a medicine cat in a relationship. Also Squirrelflight is so different from Leafpool - I don’t think I could see her abandoning her Clan, I feel like she would just insist on finding a way to make it work lol

Putting these asks together as I think they're getting at the same thing!

I love reading the theories, but yeah I don't want to confirm anything at this point as they are major plot points of the next fic :)

I will say at least Shaken Roots: Twilight will be a relationship drama-heavy book like canon is, but of course I'll be putting my own spin on things. There is also at least one plot line that is being very heavily changed from canon. (I don't want to say it's necessarily the "biggest" departure from canon yet, since like SquirrelCrow and Mothpool are pretty big shifts in and of themselves. But it's up there.)

[writingdose]